Time Out Madrid

Contents

Introduction

Welcome to Madrid

Madrid in Brief

Madrid in 48 Hours

Madrid by Area

Madrid Basics

In Context

History

Architecture

Madrid Today

Seeing the Bulls

Movida Movies

Flamenco

Sights

Tour Madrid

The Old City

The Retiro & Salamanca

Beyond the Centre

Eat, Drink, Sleep, Shop

Hotels

Restaurants

Tapas

Cafés & Bars

Shops & Services

Arts & Entertainment

Calendar

Children

Film

Galleries

Gay & Lesbian

Music

Nightlife

Sport & Fitness

Theatre & Dance

Escapes & Excursions

Escapes & Excursions

Directory

Getting Around

Resources A-Z

Vocabulary

Further Reference

Maps

Madrid by Area

Index

Sights

Hotels

Restaurants

Tapas

Cafés & Bars

Shops & Services

Arts & Entertainment

Publishing Information

Copyright

Credits

About Time Out

Welcome to Madrid

Spain’s two biggest cities – Madrid and Barcelona – go through cyclical phases of each hogging the limelight; while Madrid was the focus during the post-Franco ‘transición’ in the 1980s, Barcelona stole the show in the ’90s and early noughties with its post-Olympics urban design schemes and cosmopolitan outlook. Now, it seems, it’s Madrid’s turn again. While the country as a whole is struggling to cope with the severe economic crisis, Madrid is still riding on a wave of optimism, partly thanks to the grandiose urban renewal schemes of its ambitious mayor. From the redevelopment of the bank of the Manzanares River to the pedestrianisation of key streets, Madrid’s infrastructure has been transformed over the past five years. What’s more, the city has witnessed the completion of several high-profile buildings, including Herzog & de Meuron’s CaixaForum, extensions to its three world-famous art museums, the revamped Mercado de San Miguel, and the Cuatro Torres development in the financial district, including Norman Foster’s Torre Caja Madrid, now the tallest building in Spain. Along with a push by local authorities to promote tourism, these projects have accounted for an increase in visitors and led to a new-found confidence that has inspired the city to push the envelope (as this guide went to press, free Wi-Fi was being implemented in its main squares and even its buses). What’s more, widespread immigration during the pre-2008 boom decades has led to a newfound multiculturalism and has transformed the city’s eating-out scene.

Yet, despite boasting exciting new architecture, increasingly innovative restaurants and arts centres and the country’s best gay scene, this is a city still ruled by traditions and by its distinctive barrios; but herein lies its charm. Whether you’re talking about La Latina’s Sunday tapas crawl, Malasaña’s grungy rock scene or Salamanca’s upmarket restaurants, this is a city where social rituals rule supreme. While madrileños are in many ways more forward-thinking than they were a decade ago, they remain loyal to its many atmospheric institutions, with the city’s best old bars still packed most nights of the week.

Madrid has experienced a profound shift over the past few years, and its current identity is about attempting to mix the old with the new. With the economic crisis have come testing times, with widespread debt, sky-high unemployment and rising prices. But the local heartbeat is strong, and it’s still a great time to visit this historical, culturally rich and supremely fun city.

Anna Norman, Editor

Madrid in Brief

IN CONTEXT

Despite the recession, Madrid is in fine form; mayoral-led urban renewal projects over the past few years have given the city a much-needed facelift and improved its infrastructure, while iconic new architecture and a more outward-looking attitude have freshened up the grandiose vibe it inherited from its Bourbon and Habsburg past. While many traditional features remain, Madrid feels more cosmopolitan and modern than it has in decades.

► For more, see In Context.

SIGHTS

With the extensions to the Prado, the Thyssen-Bornemisza and the Reina Sofía now complete, Madrid is firmly established as one of the world’s best cities for art. But go beyond the frames and you’ll find a plethora of excellent small museums, as well as beautiful gardens in the form of the Retiro and the Jardín Botánico. Due to Madrid’s compact size, many of its key sights can be reached on foot, via the city’s medieval streets or the leafy Paseo del Prado.

► For more, see Sights.

EAT, DRINK, SLEEP, SHOP

With increased multiculturalism has come a widening of tastes, reflected most clearly in Madrid’s restaurant scene, which now encompasses cuisines from all over the world, as well as the homegrown nueva cocina. Lively old tapas joints now rub shoulders with chic bars, while traditional small shops have been joined by a wave of fashion-forward boutiques. The boutique concept also hit the hotels market a few years ago, and hasn’t looked back.

► For more, see Eat, Drink, Sleep, Shop.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Madrid’s film and rock music scenes grew out of the 1980s counter-cultural movement, and still fuel its cultural arena – along with new strands of popular music, such as flamenco fusion. A new set of multidisciplinary arts centres, meanwhile, has led to more cutting-edge fare in a city long dominated by tradition. And although Madrid’s legendary nightlife is less notorious than it once was, there’s still plenty of (extremely) late-night fun to be had.

► For more, see Arts & Entertainment.

ESCAPES & EXCURSIONS

The stately cities of Toledo and Segovia, and the palaces, monastries and gardens at Aranjuez, La Granja, Riofrío and El Escorial all make excellent escapes from the capital. In summer, the cool mountain air of the sierras beckons, with superb hiking and camping and spectacular landscapes; while in winter, head to one of the nearby country towns to hole up in a traditional mesón, with red wine, a log fire and some suckling pig.

► For more, see Escapes & Excursions.

Madrid in 48 Hours

DAY 1: PASEO DEL PRADO, THE RETIRO AND LOS AUSTRIAS

10AM Start the day in the Puerta del Sol, Madrid’s official centre, by enjoying a coffee and a pastry in La Mallorquina – something of a Madrid institution.

11AM Head south-east down the Carrera de San Jerónimo until you reach the Paseo del Prado. Madrid’s three world-famous art museums – the Thyssen, the Prado and the Reina Sofía – are all in the vicinity, but we don’t suggest you try to tackle them all. The Museo del Prado, based on Spain’s royal collections, is the absolute don’t-miss. Buy a ticket from the machine outside to skip the queues, and head to the Goya rooms. Other highlights include Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights and Velázquez’s Las Meninas.

2PM Lunch in Madrid is from 2pm, when many restaurants offer a well-priced menú del día. Newcomer Estado Puro, not far from the Prado, is a good bet if you’re looking for local cuisine in a chic space; for cheaper fare, head to the Huertas branch of Viva La Vida for a takeaway box, to be eaten on one of the Paseo del Prado’s benches. Then enjoy a post-meal stroll south down the Paseo, taking in the CaixaForum on the right – its vertical garden is now one of the most photographed spots in town.

4PM After a morning of culture, you might like to enjoy some of Madrid’s green highlights; the restful Jardín Botánico lies just off the Paseo del Prado, while the Retiro park, with its boating lake, buskers and shady avenues, is reached via the recently pedestrianised Cuesta de Moyano , lined with upmarket second-hand book stalls.

7PM After a few hours relaxing in the park, head north-west to the historic barrio of Los Austrias. In Madrid, afternoon shopping hours are 4pm to around 9pm, and in Plaza del Conde de Barajas, near the Plaza Mayor, you’ll find Taller Puntera, Madrid’s best shop for artisan leather products. After flexing the credit card, head round the corner to the Mercado de San Miguel for some upmarket tapas – it’s a great spot to witness madrileños doing what they do best: enjoying food and drink in sociable surroundings.

DAY 2: MADRID’S COUNTER-CULTURAL NEIGHBOURHOODS

10AM Malasaña was the focus of the post-Franco counter-cultural movement known as La Movida Madrileña. Although the movement is well and truly over, the neighbourhood retains an atmospheric, grungy feel, with boho cafés and music-led bars. Soak up the vibe with a late breakfast at El Rincón or Lolina Vintage Café.

11AM After fuelling up for the day ahead, take a wander around the neighbourhood’s laid-back streets. Some of Madrid’s best small shops are to be found in this area, including arty Peseta and espadrilles-specialist Antigua Casa Crespo. The streets around Calle Conde Duque, home to the Centro Cultural Conde Duque – worth a visit if there’s an exhibition on – are a good bet for clothes boutiques and record shops.

2PM Although there are plenty of good restaurants in Malasaña, to get a sense of the distinctness of Madrid’s different neighbourhoods, cross over Calle de Fuencarral into Chueca for lunch. The famously gay barrio has several good restaurants, but one of the best choices is Gastromaquía, which offers a great-value Spanish-fusion menú del día.

4PM After a leisurely lunch, you’ll have time to explore more of Madrid’s barrios. The city’s compact size means that its central neighbourhoods are all within walking distance of each other. Head south of Gran Vía, through the Puerta del Sol, until you reach Lavapiés, the city’s most multicultural barrio. It begins at the now spruced-up Plaza Tirso de Molina.

6PM A stroll through Lavapiés brings you to Calle de Santa Isabel, home to Madrid’s national film theatre in the art nouveau Cine Doré. The place has featured in films by Pedro Almodóvar, a key Movida figure, and its café is a lively meeting spot for film buffs before a (bargain €2.50) screening – perhaps of a silent movie, or a classic from the national archives.

10PM On the same street as the Cine Doré lies one of Madrid’s best tapas bars, La Musa de Espronceda, a great starting point for a Lavapiés bar crawl.

Madrid by Area

LOS AUSTRIAS

The Habsburg city, including Plaza Mayor, the heart of Golden Age Madrid, lies south-west along Calle Mayor. It’s home to newly restored tapas hotspot, the Mercado de San Miguel – also great for gourmet gifts.

► see Los Austrias.

LA LATINA

Incorporating the Cava Baja and Plaza de la Paja, La Latina is a hive of activity on a Sunday, when half the city heads to the area’s lively tapas bars for some serious socialising.

► see La Latina.

SOL

The Old City’s cramped, narrow streets centre on the recently spruced-up Puerta del Sol. This is literally the centre of the city, in that all street numbers in Madrid count outwards from Sol.

► see Sol.

GRAN VIA

Madrid’s main shopping thoroughfare celebrated its centenerary in 2010. At its western end is the Plaza de España, dominated by Franco’s bombastic architecture. Some of the city’s best cinemas line the nearby streets.

► see Gran Vía.

HUERTAS & SANTA ANA

One of Madrid’s most touristy areas, due to its historic and literary past and its plethora of tapas bars and restaurants, Santa Ana’s heart is the Plaza Santa Ana, just off the pedestrianised Calle Huertas.

► see Huertas & Santa Ana.

LAVAPIÉS

Madrid’s most multicultural barrio is home to a sizeable Asian community, reflected in its restaurants and shops. It also contains some of the city’s best bars, as well as the Filmoteca at Cine Doré, on its border.

► see Lavapiés.

CHUECA

Madrid’s gay district, just north of the Gran Vía, and centred around the Plaza de Chueca, is rammed during July’s Gay Pride. It may have lost some of its edge, but you’ll find a host of hip cafés and shops, and some top-notch restaurants.

► see Chueca.

MALASAÑA & CONDE DUQUE

The original Movida barrio, Malasaña’s laid-back streets, squares and bars still buzz with a music-led, sociable crowd, while Conde Duque’s clothes shops are among the city’s most stylish.

► see Malasaña & Conde Duque.

THE RETIRO & AROUND

The Prado is here, a short walk along the Paseo del Prado from the Thyssen, the Reina Sofía and the new CaixaForum. The Retiro park and Jardín Botánico provide some welcome respite.

► see The Retiro & Around.

SALAMANCA & AROUND

Madrid’s most well-to-do neighbourhood is the place to head to for designer garb and swanky restaurants, as well as iconic contemporary architecture and some great small museums.

► see Salamanca & Around.

BEYOND THE CENTRE

Head beyond the city walls to cool off in the outdoor pool of the verdant Casa de Campo, to see the Madrid skyline by cable car or to visit an authentic Egyptian temple, the Templo de Debod.

► see Beyond the Centre.

Madrid Basics

THE ESSENTIALS

For practical information, including visas, disabled access, emergency numbers, lost property, useful websites and local transport, please see the Directory.

THE LISTINGS

Addresses, phone numbers, websites, transport information, opening hours and admission prices are all included in our listings, as are selected other facilities. All were checked and correct at the time that this guide went to press. However, business owners can alter their arrangements at any time, and fluctuating economic conditions can cause prices to change rapidly.

The very best venues in the city, the must-sees and must-dos in every category, have been marked with a red star (✽). In the Sights chapters, we’ve also marked venues with free admission with a FREE symbol.

PHONE NUMBERS

The area code for Madrid is 91. Even if you’re in the city, you’ll always need to use the code. From outside Spain, dial your country’s international access code (00 from the UK, 011 from the US) or a plus symbol, followed by the Spanish country code (34) and the nine-digit number. So, to reach the Prado Museum, dial +34 91 330 28 00.

For more on phones, including details of local mobile-phone access, see Telephones.

FEEDBACK

We welcome feedback on this guide, both on the venues we’ve included and on any other locations that you’d like to see featured in future editions. Please email us at guides@timeout.com.

NAVIGATING THE CITY

One of the most appealing aspects of Madrid is its compact size; the barrios where you’ll likely spend most of your time are all within walking distance of each other, making the city surprisingly relaxing for a capital. The metro is a reliable and easy way to get around when you do need to resort to public transport. Madrid has several key streets to help you get your bearings (Gran Vía, C/Mayor, Paseo del Prado, Paseo de la Castellana), but its winding medieval alleys can be tricky to navigate.

SEEING THE SIGHTS

The queues for the Prado museum have been lessened in recent times with more efficient ticketing systems; but it’s still best to visit early in the morning or shortly before closing. The Paseo del Arte is a city council initiative to promote the geographical, historical and thematic links between Madrid’s great art triumvirate (the Prado, the Thyssen and the Reina Sofía). After a day of sightseeing, be sure to take respite in the restful royal botanical garden or the Retiro park.

PACKAGE DEALS

The Paseo del Arte ticket gives entry to the Prado, Reina Sofía and Thyssen-Bournemisza for €17.60. It can be bought from all three museums; after visiting one you can visit the other two at any time in the same calendar year.

The Madrid Card offers free admission for up to 40 of the city’s museums. It costs €40 for one day, €62 for two days, or €76 for three. Visit www.madridcard.com.

In Context

History

Architecture

Madrid Today

Seeing the Bulls

Movida Movies

Flamenco

History

From shanty town to cosmopolitan capital.

TEXT: NICK RIDER

Around 100 years after Madrid had become capital of the Spanish Empire on the whim of Philip II, an attempt was made to construct an ancient past for it, and writers developed the story of its descent from a Roman city called Mantua Carpetana. Though there were Roman towns nearby at Alcalá de Henares (Complutum) and Toledo (Toletum), and Roman villas along the valley of the Manzanares, there is no real evidence that there was ever a local Mantua, or that any of these settlements was the origin of modern Madrid. The story of Mantua Carpetana, however, served to obscure the insignificance of Madrid before Philip II moved his court here in 1561, and, above all, the embarrassing fact that it was founded by Muslims: specifically, in about 860 AD, during the reign of Mohammed I, fifth Emir of Córdoba.

ARABIAN SIGHTS

Following their eruption into the Iberian peninsula in 711, the Arab armies did not occupy the inhospitable lands north of the Sierra de Guadarrama, but established a frontier more or less along the old Roman road linking Mérida, Toledo and Saragossa. The original qasr (a word absorbed into Spanish as Alcázar) or fortress of Madrid was one of a string of watchtowers built north of this line in the ninth century, as Christian raids into Al-Andalus became more frequent. The rocky crag on which it stood, where the Palacio Real is today, was ideal for the purpose, since it had a view of the main tracks south from the Guadarrama. It also had excellent water, from underground streams within the rock. Madrid’s original Arabic name, Mayrit or Magerit, means ‘place of many springs’.

Mayrit became more than just a fortress, with an outer citadel, the eastern wall of which ran along the modern C/Factor, and a wider town or medina bounded by the Plaza de la Villa and C/Segovia. A section of wall, the Muralla Arabe on Cuesta de la Vega, and the remains recently excavated next to the Palacio Real are the only remnants of Muslim Madrid visible in the modern city. Both citadel and medina consisted of a mass of narrow alleys, like the old quarters of North African cities today.

Mayrit was attacked by Christian armies in 932 and 1047, and in the 970s was used by the great minister of Córdoba, Al-Mansur, as a base for his celebrated 100 campaigns against the north. By the 11th century, it had a population of around 7,000.

CHRISTIAN CONQUEST

In the 11th century the Caliphate of Córdoba disintegrated into a mass of petty princedoms called taifas, and Mayrit became part of the Emirate of Toledo. In 1086, Alfonso VI of Castile was able to take advantage of this situation to conquer Toledo, and with it Madrid. The town’s main mosque became the church of Santa María de la Almudena, which would survive until the 19th century. For many years, however, Madrid would remain on the front line. In 1109, it was again besieged, by a Moorish army that camped below the Alcázar in the place since known as Campo del Moro (Field of the Moor). A new wall was built, enclosing the area between the Alcázar and Plaza Isabel II, Plaza San Miguel and Plaza Humilladero.

Christian Madrid was a very rural town, and most of the population who worked did so on the land. Madrid did acquire large religious houses, notably the Friary of San Francisco, where the church of San Francisco el Grande still stands, supposedly founded by St Francis of Assisi in 1217. Madrid was still not entirely Christian, however. Many Muslims, known as Mudéjares, had stayed in the conquered areas, retaining their own laws and religion, and were prized by the Castilian monarchs for their skills as builders and masons; their work can still seen today in the towers of San Nicolás de los Servitas and San Pedro el Viejo. In Madrid they were confined to the area known as the Morería. Medieval Madrid also had a smaller Jewish population, concentrated outside the walls in Lavapiés.

Madrid did finally begin to play more of a role in the affairs of Castile in the 14th century. In 1309, the Cortes, or parliament, met here for the first time. Medieval Castile did not have a fixed capital, but instead the Court followed the king around the country. In the 14th and 15th centuries Castile was dogged by a series of social revolts and civil wars, between monarchs, the nobility and rival claimants from the royal family. Against this backdrop, Madrid began to gain popularity as a royal residence, a country retreat more than a centre of power.

Political instability did not prevent substantial economic progress in 15th-century Castile, with Madrid becoming a reasonably prosperous trading centre for the first time. Trade outgrew the old market in Plaza de la Villa, and in the 1460s an area east of the 12th-century wall was built up as a ramshackle new market square, the origin of the Plaza Mayor. A new town wall was built, not for defence but so that taxes could be levied on people living in the new parts of the town. Its eastern entrance was a new gate, the Puerta del Sol.

Madrid retained a degree of royal favour, helped and continued its modest growth, and at the end of the Middle Ages had a population of around 10,000-12,000.

On 11 May 1561, the small-time aristocrats who ran the town of Madrid received a letter from their king, Philip II, warning that he, the entire royal household and all their hundreds of hangers-on would shortly be coming to stay.

El Escorial.

CAPITAL IDEA

Philip II (1556-98) was the fundamental figure in Madrid’s history. He was a deeply pious, shy, austere man. His father had travelled incessantly about his many dominions, and led his armies into battle. Philip, in contrast, ruled his inheritance from behind a desk, as a kind of king-bureaucrat, sometimes dealing with over 400 documents a day. This extraordinary exercise in paperwork naturally required a permanent base.

Why Philip chose a town without a cathedral, college or printing press as capital remains unclear. The fact that Madrid was near the centre of the Iberian peninsula probably appealed to him, as he was fascinated by geometry and Renaissance ideas of a king as the ‘centre’ of the state, but his choice made no economic sense at all, since it gave Spain the only major European capital not on a navigable river. Madrid – which for centuries would normally be referred to in Spain as ‘La Corte’, the Court, never as a city in its own right, which indeed it wasn’t – would be a capital of the monarchy’s own creation, a pure expression of royal power.

Having established his ideal capital, Philip did little to build or plan it. He had extended the Alcázar when he was still crown prince, then his attention shifted to El Escorial, where he increasingly spent his time. Royal piety was demonstrated by the endowment of new houses for religious orders, such as the Descalzas Reales. Philip II founded 17 convents and monasteries in Madrid, Philip III 14 and Philip IV another 17, and they would cover a third of the city until the 19th century. A wider city wall was put up in 1566, and the Puente de Segovia in the 1580s. Philip’s favourite architect, Juan de Herrera, planned the rebuilding of the Plaza Mayor, but the only part built during his reign was the Casa de la Panadería in 1590.

The establishment of the Court and aristocracy in Madrid – the great centres of consumption and patronage – made it a magnet for people from all over Spain and abroad. The population went from under 20,000 in 1561 to 55,000 in 1584 and close to 85,000 by 1600. Building did not keep up with the influx, and a law decreed that in any house of more than one storey, the upper floor could be requisitioned to house members of the Court. In response, people simply put up houses with only one floor, and much of the new Madrid grew as a mass of shabby, low buildings slapped together out of mud.

This improvised capital did not impress foreign visitors. Lambert Wyts, a Flemish aristocrat who arrived in 1571, said that it was ‘the foulest and filthiest town in Spain’. Thick mud made it impossible to ride a horse down the main streets in winter until a few cobbles were put down in the 1580s. There were no drains of any kind, and the streets were full of waste thrown out of the houses every night, producing an ‘unbearable stench’.

Madrid had taken on a characteristic that would stay with it to this day – that it was a city of outsiders, in which at least 50 per cent of the population was from somewhere else. Another trait for which Madrid would be repeatedly condemned was that it was a city that consumed but did not produce anything. The trades that did develop in Madrid – shoe-making, carpentry, jewellery-making, fan-making, laceworking – were overwhelmingly oriented to servicing the Court and aristocracy.

THE COURT ADJOURNS

The greatest success of Philip II’s reign was the defeat of the Turkish fleet off Lepanto in Greece in 1571. In 1580, he became King of Portugal and appeared to be at the height of his strength. However, suspensions of payment on his debts were becoming frequent, and in the 1560s a rebellion broke out in the Netherlands that would develop into a morass into which Spanish armies and wealth would disappear. His dispute with England – leading to the Armada catastrophe – and interventions in France’s religious wars were as costly.

As the number of unresolved problems mounted, a gnawing frustration spread through Castilian society, and scapegoats were sought. The former Muslims, nominally converted in 1502, were put under increasing pressure and then expelled from Spain in 1609, and the Inquisition – if not the all-pervading force of Protestant caricature – gained great powers to investigate deviations from Catholic orthodoxy.

Philip II died in 1598 at El Escorial, aged 71. His son Philip III (1598-1621) and grandson Philip IV (1621-65) had neither the intelligence, confidence or normally the motivation to carry on with the awesome burden of work he had set as an example. Philip III began the practice of ruling through a favourite or valido, in his case the Duke of Lerma. Spain’s impoverished state, aggravated by a devastating plague in 1599, was impossible to ignore, and Lerma responded by making peace with England and the Dutch.

He also committed the ultimate injury to Madrid by moving the Court to Valladolid, in 1601. The stated reason was that this would revive the economy of northern Castile, although Lerma also stood to benefit personally. He also argued that Madrid was so overrun with undesirables that it had become intolerable. The monarchy’s purpose- built capital was out of control and it would be best to write it off and start again.

Within a few months Madrid was so deserted ‘it appeared as if the Moors or the English had sacked and burnt it’. By 1605, the population had fallen back to just 26,000, little more than before Philip II’s arrival in 1561. However, the Valladolid experiment did not work, and it became evident that Madrid had acquired a momentum that was difficult to disregard. In 1606, the Court returned, amid huge rejoicing, and only a year later the population was already back to 70,000.

POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE

It was after Madrid’s definitive establishment as capital, with Philip III’s brief declaration Sólo Madrid es Corte (Only Madrid is the Court), that more was at last done to give it the look of a grand city. The Plaza Mayor was finally completed in 1619, followed by the Ayuntamiento or city hall and the Buen Retiro palace. The aristocracy, too, began to build palaces around the city once they were assured they would not have to move on again, and Madrid acquired several much more elaborate baroque churches.

The Plaza Mayor was the great arena of Habsburg Madrid. Able to hold a third of the city’s population at that time, it was the venue for state ceremonies, bullfights, executions, autos-da-fé (the ritual condemnation of heretics), mock battles, circus acts and carnival fiestas, as well as still being a market square.

Habsburg Madrid functioned rather like a giant theatre, a great backdrop against which the monarchy could display itself to its subjects and to the world. On either side were royal estates, which determined the shape of the city left in the middle and its peculiar north-south pattern of growth. Several times a year royal processions took place, with stops for various ceremonies in the Plaza Mayor and High Masses in various churches. For the occasion, buildings were covered in garlands, and temporary arches erected along the route with extravagant decoration extolling the virtues of the dynasty. As the Spanish monarchy slid towards economic collapse the lavishness of these ceremonies only increased, maintaining an illusion of power and opulence.

Away from this ceremonial route, the Habsburgs built few squares and no grand avenues, and old Madrid continued to develop along the tangled street plan it retains today. Even so, the opulence of the Court – and the poverty outside the capital – still attracted more people into the city, and in about 1630 Madrid reached its maximum size under the Habsburgs, with possibly as many as 170,000 inhabitants. In 1656, it was given its fifth and final wall, roughly surrounding the area now considered ‘old Madrid’, which would set the limits of the city for the next 200 years.

THE PRICE OF WAR

For many years the centre of all the Court pomp was King Philip IV. Throughout the 1620s and 1630s, while the Court maintained its image of grandeur, his valido, the Count-Duke of Olivares, struggled to maintain the Spanish empire against threats on every side. In the 1620s, Spain won a series of victories, and for a time it seemed the rot had been stopped. In 1639, though, a Spanish fleet was destroyed by the Dutch, and in 1643 the French crushed the Spanish army at Rocroi in Flanders. Naval defeats made it ever more difficult for Spain to import gold and silver from America. Olivares sought to extend taxation in the non-Castilian dominions of the crown, which led in 1640 to revolts in Portugal and Catalonia. Portugal regained its independence, and the Catalan revolt was only suppressed after a 12-year war.

By mid-century the effects of endless wars on Castile were visible to all, in abandoned villages and social decay. Even Madrid went into decline, so that by 1700 the city’s population had fallen back to about 100,000. In the 1660s, the total collapse of the Spanish empire seemed an immediate possibility. Castile, the first world power, had been left poorer than many of the countries it had tried to dominate.

END OF THE HABSBURG LINE

In the Court, meanwhile, life became ever more of a baroque melodrama. Of Philip IV’s 12 legitimate children by his two wives, only two girls had survived into adulthood – the youngest the Infanta Margarita, the little princess in Velázquez’s Las Meninas. In 1661, however, when Philip was already prematurely aged, the queen, Mariana of Austria, had a son.

The new heir, the future King Charles II, was chronically infirm from birth and provided the dynasty with scant consolation. The Habsburgs’ marked tendency to ill-health was accentuated by their habit of marrying cousins or nieces. The Habsburg jaw, the growth of which can be followed through family portraits, had in Charles become a real disability. He was unable to eat solid food. Because of this – or, more likely, the endless cures he was subjected to for his many ailments – he suffered uncontrollable diarrhoea, which detracted from the stately dignity of Court ceremonies.

In the meantime, both the economy and the government continued to slide. Concern centred again on the need for an heir, and Charles was married off twice, despite a general belief that he was both impotent and sterile. As it became evident that the throne of the Spanish empire would soon become vacant, the Court was overrun with bizarre intrigues, with different factions and the agents of European powers all waiting on Charles’ final demise. In 1695, the French Ambassador reported that the king ‘appeared to be decomposing’, and could barely walk without assistance. Even so, Charles hung on until the age of 38. In 1700, though, with the pathetic last words, ‘Me duele todo’ (It hurts everywhere), he finally died, and the Spanish Habsburg dynasty came to an end.

BOURBON MADRID

Philip V (1700-46), first Bourbon King of Spain, secured his throne in 1714, after the 12-year War of the Spanish Succession. He was the grandson of Louis XIV of France and María Teresa, daughter of Philip IV of Spain. Castile, abandoning its more usual francophobia, gave him complete support. The alternative, Archduke Charles of Austria, was supported by Catalonia and the other Aragonese territories, to whom he had promised a restoration of their traditional rights. Twice, in 1706 and 1710, Charles’ British, Dutch, Portuguese and Catalan army took Madrid, but was unable to hold it.

Once victorious, Philip reformed his new kingdom along the lines laid down by his illustrious grandfather in France. In 1715, the remaining rights of the former Aragonese territories were abolished, so that it is from this date that Spain can formally be said to exist.

A French king brought with him other innovations. Philip V, raised at Versailles, and his Italian second wife Isabella Farnese were not taken with Madrid or its gloomy Habsburg palaces, and so built their own Franco-Italian villa at La Granja. They were not overly upset when the entire Alcázar burnt down in 1734, and a new Palacio Real was commissioned from Italian architects. Philip V and his administrator of Madrid, the Marqués de Vadillo, also sponsored many buildings by a local architect, Pedro de Ribera.

Reform led to economic recuperation and a recovery in Madrid’s population. People still came and went, but it also acquired a more stable resident population, with a merchant community and an artisan and working class. Even so, in many ways Madrid had changed little. Its main function was still to serve the Court, whose ceremonies set the calendar. They were as lavish as ever: until the 1770s the amount spent annually by the Crown in Madrid was greater than the entire budget of the Spanish navy.

Fernando VI (1746-59) was a shy but popular king who gave Spain its longest period of peace for over 200 years. Childless, he was succeeded by half-brother Charles III (1759-88). Previously King of Naples for 20 years, he too was less than impressed by Madrid. However, more than any of his predecessors he set about improving the city, becoming known as Madrid’s Rey-Alcalde or ‘King-Mayor’.

ENLIGHTENMENT STRIKES

Charles was fascinated by Enlightenment ideas of progress, science and the applied use of reason. No democrat, he sought to bring about rational improvement from the top. Reforms were undertaken in the bureaucracy and armed forces, and to improve trade with Spanish America. He challenged the privileges of the religious orders, and expelled the Jesuits from Spain in 1767 for their refusal to co-operate.

In Madrid, Charles first undertook to do something about the mud in winter, suffocating dust in summer and foul smells at all times – which were noted by every visitor to the city. A 1761 decree banned the dumping of waste in the streets, and Charles’ Italian engineer-architect Francesco Sabatini began building sewers and street lighting. A string of major buildings was erected, of which the Casa de Correos in Puerta del Sol and the Puerta de Alcalá are the best-known. A later queen of Spain remarked that it sometimes seemed as if all the monuments of Madrid had been built by Charles III.

Charles III’s grandest project was the Paseo del Prado (see El Salón del Prado). He sent scientific expeditions to every corner of his empire, and planned to exhibit the fruits of their varied researches in a Museum of Natural Sciences – now the Museo del Prado – and the adjacent Jardín Botánico.

Reform and improved trade did create a feeling of well-being in late 18th-century Madrid. Nevertheless, Spain was still a very feudal society, and the real economy remained backward and frail. And, in an absolute monarchy, a great deal depended on each monarch. Charles IV (1788-1808) had none of his father’s energy or intelligence. Also, he chose as his minister the corrupt Manuel Godoy. After the French Revolution, Spain joined other monarchies in attacking the new regime; in 1795, however, Godoy made peace and then an alliance with France, leading to an unpopular war with Britain. Then, in 1808, when Godoy was vacillating over changing sides once again, he was forestalled by anti-French riots that proclaimed Charles IV’s son Fernando as king in his place. Napoleon sent troops to Madrid, assuming this decrepit state would be as easy to conquer as any other. It was not to be, at least not initially, and the consequences were horrific (see In the Frame).

Once victory was his, Napoleon made his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain. In Madrid he tried in a well-meaning fashion to make improvements, among them some squares for which the city has since been very grateful, notably the Plaza de Oriente and the Plaza Santa Ana. However, this did nothing to overcome the animosity around him. In 1812, the Duke of Wellington and his army arrived to take the city, in a battle that destroyed much of the Retiro palace. The French were finally driven out of Spain in 1813. As well as the fighting itself, the year 1812 brought with it a catastrophic famine, which in Madrid killed over 30,000 people.

The shock of this upheaval initiated a period of instability that continued until 1874 – in fact, it could be said that the instability only really ended with the death of Franco in 1975. Spain withdrew into its own problems, with one conflict after another between conservatives, reformists, revolutionaries and other factions. Each struggled to impose their model on the state and create a political system that could accommodate, or hold back, the pressures for modernisation and some form of democracy.

In 1812, a Cortes had met in Cádiz and given Spain its first constitution. Yet when Fernando VII (1808-33) returned from French captivity in 1814, his only thought was to cancel the constitution and return to the methods of his ancestors. His absolute rule, though, was incapable of responding to the bankruptcy of the country. The regime was also struggling to hold on to its American colonies, by then in complete rebellion. In 1820, a liberal revolt in the army forced Fernando to reinstate the constitution. He was saved three years later, ironically by a French army, sent to restore monarchical rule. Meanwhile, defeat at Ayacucho in Peru (1824) left Spain with only Cuba, Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico of its former American empire.

In 1830, Fernando VII’s wife María Cristina gave birth to a daughter, soon to be Queen Isabel II (1833-68). Previously, the most reactionary sectors of the aristocracy, the Church and other ultra-conservative groups had aligned themselves behind the king’s brother Don Carlos. When Fernando died in 1833, Carlos demanded the throne, launching what became known as the Carlist Wars. To defend her daughter’s rights, María Cristina, as Regent, had no choice but to look for support from liberals, and so was obliged to promise some form of constitutional rule.

OLD ROMANTICS

For the next 40 years Spanish politics was a see-saw, as conservative and liberal factions vied for power, while the Carlists, off the spectrum for most people in Madrid, occasionally threatened at the gates. Madrid was the great centre for aspiring politicians, and the problems of Spain were discussed endlessly in its salons and new cafés, which multiplied around this time. This was the era of Romanticism, and writers such as the journalist Larra and poet José Espronceda were heavily involved in politics. Similarly, many of the politicians of the day were also writers.

Much of the time, though, these reformers were shepherds in search of a flock, for there were no true political parties. The only way a faction could hope to gain power was with the support of a general with troops at his disposal.

This political instability did not mean that life in Madrid was chaotic. Visitors in the early 1830s found a small, sleepy, shabby city, which seemed sunk in the past. Convents and palaces still occupied nearly half its area. It was around this time that Spain acquired its romantic aura. A growing number of foreigners visited, drawn by Spain’s timeless, exotic qualities. One was the French writer Prosper Mérimée, who in 1845 wrote his novel Carmen, later put to music by Bizet, who himself never visited Spain at all.

EXPANSION AND TURMOIL

The 1830s, however, also saw the single most important change in Madrid during the 19th century. In 1836, the liberal minister Mendizábal took advantage of the church’s sympathy for Carlism to introduce his Desamortización or Disentailment law, which dissolved most of Spain’s monasteries. In Madrid, the church lost over 1,000 properties. Most were demolished remarkably quickly, and an enormous area thus became available for sale and new building.

Some urban reformers saw this as an opportunity to build broad, airy avenues, following the always-cited example of Paris. Some major projects were undertaken, the most important being the rebuilding of the Puerta del Sol in 1854-62. However, most of the local traders who benefited from Desamortización lacked the capital to contemplate grand projects, and built separate blocks without ever challenging the established, disorderly street plan. The districts of old Madrid took on the appearance they have largely kept until today, with great numbers of tenement blocks. They allowed Madrid to grow considerably in population, without going outside its still-standing wall of 1656.

A few factories had appeared in the city, but for the most part the Industrial Revolution was passing Madrid by. Constitutional governments expanded the administration, and the ambitions of the middle class were focused on obtaining official posts rather than on business ventures. Two more major changes arrived in the 1850s. In 1851, Madrid got its first railway, to Aranjuez, followed by a line running to the Mediterranean. Railways would transform Madrid’s relationship with the rest of the country, opening up a realistic possibility of it fulfilling an economic function. Equally important was the completion of the Canal de Isabel II, bringing water from the Guadarrama, in 1858. Madrid’s water supply, still part-based on Moorish water courses, had been inadequate for years. The canal removed a crippling obstruction to the city’s growth.

Madrid’s population was by this time over 300,000. Steps were finally taken for it to break out of its old walls, and in 1860 a plan by Carlos María de Castro was approved for the Ensanche (extension) of Madrid, in an orderly grid pattern to the north and east. However, as with earlier rebuilding, the plan came up against the chronic lack of large-scale local investors. The only major development undertaken quickly was the section of C/Serrano bought up by the flamboyant speculator the Marqués de Salamanca, whose name was given to the whole district.

Meanwhile, the political situation was deteriorating once again, after a long period of conservative rule that began in 1856. Isabel II had become deeply unpopular, surrounded by an aura of sleaze and scandal. In September 1868, yet another military revolt deposed the government and, this time, the queen as well.

There followed six years of turmoil. The provisional government invited an Italian prince, Amadeo of Savoy, to become king of a truly constitutional monarchy. However, in December 1870, General Prim, strongman of the new regime, was assassinated. Carlist revolts broke out in some parts of the country, while on the left new, more radical groups began to appear. At the end of 1868, a meeting in Madrid addressed by Giuseppe Fanelli, an Italian associate of Bakunin, led to the founding of the first anarchist group in Spain. The Cortes itself was riven by factions, and Amadeo decided to give up the struggle and go back to Italy.

On 12 February 1873, Spain became a republic. Rightist resistance became stronger than ever, while many towns were taken over by left-wing juntas, who declared them autonomous ‘cantons’, horrifying conservative opinion. To keep control, Republican governments relied increasingly heavily on the army. This proved fatal, and on 3 January 1874 the army commander in Madrid, General Pavía, marched into the Cortes, sent all its members home, and installed a military dictatorship.

THE BOURBONS RETURN

At the end of 1874, the army decided to restore the Bourbon dynasty, in the shape of Alfonso XII (1874-85), the son of Isabel II. The architect of the Restoration regime, however, was a civilian politician, Antonio Cánovas del Castillo. He established the system of turno pacífico, or peaceful alternation in power (thus avoiding social tensions), between a Conservative Party, led by himself, and a Liberal Party which was made up of former progressives. The control of these ‘dynastic parties’ over the political system was made secure by election-rigging and occasional repression.

In the late 1870s, the wealthy of Madrid set out on a building boom. They finally overcame their reluctance to leave the old city, and the Salamanca area became the new centre of fashionable life. Most of the district’s new apartment blocks had lifts, first seen in Madrid in 1874. In earlier blocks upper floors had been let cheaply, so that rich and poor had often continued to live side by side. With lifts, however, a top floor could be as desirable as a first, and this kind of class mixing faded.

Government and official bodies, too, undertook a huge round of new building. The Banco de España, the Bolsa and the main railway stations are all creations of the 1880s. Madrid meanwhile acquired a larger professional middle class; it also attracted intellectuals from around the country.

At the same time, Madrid was receiving an influx of poor migrants from rural Spain, with over 200,000 new arrivals between 1874 and 1900. Economic growth was reflected in the appearance of yet more small workshops rather than factories. There were also many with next to no work, and the 1880s saw the beginning of a housing crisis, with the growth of shanty towns around the outskirts of the city.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Just before the end of the century, however, the preconceptions on which Spanish political life had been based received a shattering blow. The Restoration regime presented itself as having returned the country to stability and some prestige in the world. However, in the 1890s Spain was involved in colonial wars against nationalists in the Philippines and Cuba. In 1898, the government allowed itself to be manoeuvred into a disastrous war with the United States of America. In a few weeks, almost the entire Spanish navy was sunk, and Spain lost virtually all its remaining overseas territories. Known simply as ‘The Disaster’, this was a devastating blow to Spain’s self-confidence. The regime itself was revealed as decrepit and incompetent, based on a feeble economy. Among intellectuals, the situation sparked off an intense round of self-examination and discussion of Spain’s relationship with the very concept of modernity. The problems of the regime were not due to the country being backward, however. Rather, they spiralled out of control because after 1900 the country entered an unprecedented period of change.

CITY WITHOUT LIMITS

Sudden economic expansion was set off by three main factors. One, ironically, was the loss of the colonies, which led to large amounts of capital being brought back to the country. Most important was World War I, which provided unheard-of opportunities for neutral Spain in the supply of goods to the Allied powers. Then, during the worldwide boom of the 1920s, Spain benefited hugely from foreign investment.

Within a few years, Spain had one